BEIJING: China’s daily coal output has stabilized at 12 million tons, amid a raft of measures to ramp up power production, the country’s state planner said on Sunday.
Beijing has been trying to cool a red-hot market for coal, China’s main fuel for power generation, after shortages led to electricity rationing for industry in many regions, adding to factory gate inflation in the world’s second-biggest economy.
Coal stocks at ports and power plants have been picking up quickly, with stocks in power plants hitting 129 million tons as of Nov. 14 and expected to hit 140 million tons by the end of November, said state media CCTV.
“Energy prices including coal prices have fallen significantly lately,” the report said, citing National Development and Reform Commission official Zhu Xiaohai.
The fall in coal prices has pushed down prices for steel, aluminum, pulp, PVC and coal chemical products, and pricing pressure on those raw materials has eased, Zhu, a deputy director of NDRC’s Department of Prices, said in the report, which the commission reposted.
Thermal coal futures have plunged more than 60 percent to around 800 yuan ($125) a ton from a historic high of nearly 2,000 yuan in mid-October, Zhu said.
The state planner last month set an initial target of 1,200 yuan in its most direct intervention yet to cool the market for the key power-generating fuel amid the severe power crunch.